In today's connected society, service providers are facing several threats to their core business models. For example, service providers are faced with the realization that voice services are becoming commoditized by free voice calling over the Internet and data services are making service providers little more than a bitpipe. This realization has led service providers to think of new types of revenue generating services that may be necessitated in a Web 2.0 Internet centric world.
One area in which service providers are focusing their attention is on the problem of identity theft. A major cause of the identity theft problem arises from people posing as someone else and hijacking the person's identity. This costs the United States economy as well as the global economy billions of dollars in losses every year. This problem is particularly exacerbating because most people manage all of their financial and personal information online. Thus, merely stealing one's credentials, such as a user identification and password, can provide a thief with the resources required to assume a person's identity with minimal trouble.
When one's credential set is stolen and used maliciously online, it is often too late before the actual owner of the credential even realizes that damage has been done, especially when thieves mimic the owner's usage patterns so as to not set off alarms in the service providers' security systems. This mimicking process allows thieves to periodically siphon off small quantities of funds, e.g., from banks, and leads to pervasive identity theft that threatens to damage the trust based underpinnings of the Internet.
A number of reasons have contributed to the online identity theft problem. For example, several malware operators actively distribute keystroke loggers and harvesters to multiple target personal computers and other clients. These keystroke loggers and harvesters are capable of collecting credential information, which can be transmitted back to remote locations outside of the United States and to other areas where regulatory and law enforcement is practically nonexistent.
A number of malware operators exist and can be encapsulated in, e.g., emails functioning as a Trojan horse. These emails allow for the quiet takeover of a host machine without the consumer even knowing that the his or her information is being taken. Malware is particularly harmful to consumers because millions of devices are not protected by any security software, do not include updates for existing software, and/or do not support security software, such as personal digital assistants, mobile devices, etc.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.